>How he did manage to avoid lawsuits from Microsoft is beyond me.
MS probably chose not to shut down that effort on the basis that it was enabling the MS stack in Linux.
I wish I could dig up an internal presentation that was prepared in the 90s for Bill Gates at the time, which evaluated the threat posed by Linux to Microsoft. I think they were probably happy that Linux now had a reason to talk to Windows machines.
At first, MS didn’t mind as long as SAMBA only implemented the outdated older protocols.
Then they realized interoperability could make them more money, and they invited him and his team to Redmond for a week of working with MS engineers to understand the latest protocol versions.
Oh wait, no, it was because the EU forced them. https://www.theregister.com/2007/12/21/samba_microsoft_agree...
How he did manage to avoid lawsuits from Microsoft is beyond me.
[1] Server Message Block:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Server_Message_Block